State furloughs to effect National Guard Civil engineer squadron facility to get face liftLiving the Soldiers’ story: Journalists learning infantry tactics ANA Master Gunners GraduateBowles: didn’t win, but still a winnerCommunication, learning from others center of annual conferenceVolunteer of the Year: A great womanAugust Guard HistoryNational Guard embraces social mediaBraves take FlightBrunswick exercise tests Georgia response to terrorist threatArmy Guard graduates 28 new lieutenantsDVIDS Transmission Unit installed at JFHQ in MariettaJSTARS Aircraft availability improvedDefense Travel System to modify reservation processRHIP...What does it mean?

Contents Vol. 1, No. 8 August 2009

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Want to submit a story for your unit? All submissions for the Georgia Guardsman can be sent to Amanda Kenny at gaguardpao@gmail.com. Please submit your stories in a Word document. All photos should be in a JPEG format and NOT embedded in the document.

The Georgia Guardsman

Send comments, suggestions, articles,

photos or other contributions to:

gaguardpao@gmail.com

The Georgia Guardsman is published monthly under the provisions of AR 360-81 and AF 6-1 by the Georgia Depart-ment of Defense Public Affairs Office. The views and opin-ions expressed in the Georgia Guardsman are not necessarily those of the Departments of the Army and Air Force or the Adjutant General of Georgia. The Georgia Guardsman is dis-tributed free to members of the Georgia Army and Air National Guard, State Defense Force and other interested persons at their request.

Updated news and infor-mation on the Georgia DoD can be viewed at www.gadod.net

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Social NetworkingThe Georgia Guardsman is now on:

TwitterFacebookFlickr

Commander-In-ChiefGov. Sonny Perdue

Adjutant General of Georgia

MG Terry Nesbitt

PublisherLt Col (Ret) Kenneth R. Baldowski

Editorial StaffDr. Beryl DiamondSFC Roy HenryAmanda KennySPC Mike Perry

Video-Audio EditorDavid Howell

Contributing writersMAJ Eddie Williams - GSDF

SPC Adam Dean

National Guard Correspondents124th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs Office

Army National Guard Unit Public Affairs Officers and Representatives

Air National Guard Wing Public Affairs Officers and Representatives

Readership survey

Georgia DoD videosTo see videos, click on the name of the story.

Georgia National Guard 2009 Volunteer of the Year receives awardFun at the Georgia Family Readiness Conference banquetPinning ceremony for Georgia National Guard OCS GraduatesBG Dudney discusses preparations for Afghan Elections

CJTF Phoenix IXOperations

Gospel Fest 48th 33rd transition

Peachtree Road Race

Dear Readers and Guardsman,

As part of the new Georgia Guardsman, we want to know what you think about how we are doing. Below you will find a link to a readership survey. Please download the survey, you will need Adobe Acrobat reader, and fill it out. Conviently, we have included an e-mail feature at the top of the form. Once you have filled it out please click the button and e-mail it to us! You can also save it and e-mail it manually to gaguardpao@gmail.com.

Thank you for your participation!Your Georgia Guardsman Staff

Click here for the survey

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State furloughs to effect National Guard

All full-time regular salaried state employees of the Georgia Department of Defense, in accordance with Gov. Sonny Perdue’s executive order, will be required to take three days of fur-lough between mid-September and the end of the calendar year. Furloughs were ordered due to a decrease in state revenues, and a downturn in the na-tion’s and state’s economy.

In a statement to employees, MG William T. Nesbitt, the Adjutant Gen-eral, declared “we simply have no al-ternatives. I recognize this action will

Public Affairs Office Georgia National Guard

impact you and your families.” The General said he “personally [will] take furlough days, as are all state senior leaders, the same as every other state employee.”

The furlough implementation plan mandates that State employees will take the first 8-hour furlough period during the Sept. 16-30, 2009 pay pe-riod. A second furlough period will oc-cur during the Oct. 16-31 pay period, and the final furlough period occurs be-tween Nov. 16-30. Pay deductions will show on end of month pay checks. The furlough applies to all state employees, regardless of the funding source(s) of

their program.Employees affected by this action

must schedule and get the approval of the furlough day in conjunction with the approval of their direct su-pervisor and location manager.

“Furloughs, though unpleasant for all of us,” said Sandra Bruce, state personnel director, “are an ef-fort on the part of General Nesbitt and the State leadership to save jobs. Our state benefits, such as leave and health care are not affected.”

According to state personnel poli-cies, employees cannot – on their furlough day – volunteer at either their usual workplace or at home.

For more information regarding the implementation of furloughs in the Georgia Department of Defense contact Bruce (sandra.k.bruce@us.army.mil), or the State Personnel Office at 678-569-6022.

Nesbitt noted that “during these tough economic times, which now calls for a personal sacrifice from us all, I know that you (state employ-ees) will continue the outstanding work you do for the Georgia Depart-ment of Defense.”

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Civil engineer squadron facility to get facelift

WARNER ROBINS, Aug. 17, 2009 – How does a Georgia Air Guard unit go from what some saw as having the second worst facility in the nation to a state of the art building? The lead-ership for the 116th Civil Engineering Squadron (CES) at Robins Air Force Base would answer that with “work, work and more hard work.”

The $4.1 million makeover of the squadron’s home will give the facility a complete facelift and will provide its Airmen 33,000 square feet of state of the art training, administration and shop space. This renovation has been in the works for more than a decade, and when finished, completes the plans made by a host of past and present wing commanders.

When the Air Guard’s former 116th Bomb Wing moved to Robins in the late 1990s, it and other units occupied “temporary facilities” while new con-struction and renovation was done on the wing’s current buildings. The 116th engineers, too, moved into a temporary building until construction of a perma-nent home was completed. However, several factors, such as the conversion of the bomb wing into an air control wing and the change over to JSTARS aircraft, the Global War on Terror and “force shaping,” lead to the postpone-ment of the engineer squadron finding a permanent home.

In 2006, the National Guard Bureau conducted a facility assessment and determined that the 116th CES was re-siding in the second worst engineering compound in the Air National Guard. This led to another building being identified for the squadron’s new com-pound, and funding being appropriated for a concept study on how to adapt the facility for CES’ needs.

Funding, squadron leadership was

Story by Maj Michael NorkettProject manager, 116th CESGeorgia Air National Guard

told, to build the facility would have to wait until 2011, or so some believed. However, Lt Col Jeremy Simmons, the unit commander, successfully lobbied the bureau and obtained the funding for Fiscal Year 2009.

A full design of the new building was completed earlier this Spring, with bidding underway on the project by several construction companies. Once contracts are awarded, the winning firms have about six weeks to mobilize and start work. Construction should take between 8 and 12 months to com-plete.

When the work is done, the 116th engineers will have a new energy effi-cient facility. It will boast three train-ing areas for wing personnel to obtain

readiness and explosive ordnance de-molition training. The new facility also will play a major role in future Opera-tional Readiness Exercises. An added feature is a help desk inside the front entrance, which will provide a common focal point for facility maintenance re-quests.

Artist rendering of the new 116th CES facility

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Living the Soldiers’ story

Journalists learning infantry tactics

FORT GILLEM, Ellenwood – At-lanta’s 124th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment (MPAD) is usually tasked with the mission of “telling the Soldiers’ story.” However, the unit got a glimpse of what it is to live the story when the MPAD put down their cameras and note pads, and picked up their M-16 rifles for three days of infantry training

here, Aug.7 to 9, 2009.

By hel-icopter and g r o u n d convoy, the body armor and weapon clad jour-nalists de-scended on the parcel of gravel and dirt that would be their area of operations, e n d u r i n g the intense

heat of Georgia’s midsummer.“This weekend the mission of the

124th is to conduct dismounted patrol training to increase familiarity with tac-tics, techniques and procedures, so that we can better support front line units that use them more often,” announced MAJ John Alderman, the unit’s com-mander.

In order to tell the Soldiers’ story, it is important that members of a public affairs unit have the competence, and the confidence, to travel with all kinds of units without getting in the way of their operations, said Alderman.

Story by SPC Adam DeanPhotos by SGT Jerry De Avila 124th MPADGeorgia Army National Guard

“Most of the MPAD Soldiers don’t have any sort of infantry background or know dismounted patrolling tech-niques, so the first thing to do is to es-tablish a baseline of tactics, techniques and procedures that would apply to the broadest number of missions,” he ex-plained.

Utilizing such time-honored move-ment drills as the “squad column fire team wedge, the ranger file and the staggered file,” the journalists went out on dozens of missions over the course of the weekend. Mock opposing forces enhanced the realism of the exercise by hitting the group with everything from blank small arms fire to smoke gre-nades to artillery simulators.

SPC Denise Durbin-Carlton, a bud-ding photojournalist who was drilling with the unit for only the second time, said the intensity of the training far sur-passed her expectations.

“It was excellent! The way the lead-ership provided motivation to push us through was helpful. We did everything several times so we would learn to do it right, as opposed to just going through the motions once or twice,” she said.

“The bottom line is that we’re all Soldiers. A mobile public affairs de-tachment is designed to go into or near combat to provide coverage for Sol-diers who are on the front lines. Our people need to be able to survive in that environment, and they need to un-derstand the units they support,” said Alderman.

In terms of how such training ben-efits the unit, Alderman said the lead-ership aspect of the training cannot be over emphasized.

“This really is a leadership exercise from top to bottom,” he said. “It takes direct leadership to make this kind of mission successful, and it forces del-egation because there are a lot of things

The 124th MPAD’s Alpha Team “shoots and scoots” its way into an “en-emy position.”

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that must be done. It also forces clear communication and an attention to dis-cipline.

“It’s a true leadership lab, in every sense of the word.”

As a bonus, the Soldiers work to-gether to solve problems they’re not accustomed to handling. This shared adversity contributes greatly to the co-hesiveness of the unit, said Alderman.

SGT Robert Freese agreed with him, saying that he thought the weekend was a huge success that honed not only his leadership abilities, but those of ev-eryone involved.

“I saw leadership growth in ev-erybody. Everyone was learning new things and coming together to solve problems as a team. I saw junior non-commissioned officers (NCOs) who’re usually quiet and unsure, step up and show they could identify things that needed to get done and just do them,” said Freese.

“What we did was intentionally dif-ficult and intentionally challenging; we pushed each other, and we worked very hard, because we need to share that ex-perience. Now that we have, we can be more confident in each other. Whether we’re cold or hot or tired or whatever, we know we’ll be there for one anoth-er,” Alderman added.

SGT Jerry De Avila, another photo-journalist who’s only been with the unit

SSG Gerard Brown, readiness and training NCO and a broadcast journalist with the 124th MPAD, sets up along with fellow Soldiers to go after an “insurgent position” during recent infantry train-ing at Fort Gillem’s Training site.

since March, agreed on the importance of training like this in terms of leadership and esprit de corps.

“ T h e r e ’ s something to be said about the camara-derie and the things we go through in the field,” he said. “A lot of times, that’s when a Sol-dier’s mettle is tested, and I think it’s important to know peoples’ strengths and weaknesses, and how we help each other overcome any obstacles we may face.”

De Avila said also he didn’t expect this kind of training when he first joined the MPAD, but now realizes how cru-cial it is for any unit to have such train-ing opportunities.

“At first I actually thought, ‘Man, what the heck are we doing this for? We’re photographers, we’re public af-fairs people.’ But,” he said. “When you start to think about it, whether you’re active Army or Army National Guard, really you’re a Soldier first.”

DERULAMAN, Afghanistan - Camp Dubbs was the site of the Af-ghanistan National Army’s (ANA) Master Gunner Course, Class 01-09 Graduation Ceremony. Twenty Sol-diers from Headquarters Support Secu-rity Brigade and twenty Soldiers from Capital Division, 201st Corps, Kabul successfully completed the 14-day cur-riculum.

ANA Master Gunners Graduate201st Corps Hosts Afghanistan National Army Master Gunner Graduation Ceremony

Story by SGT Danny DurhamCJTF Phoenix PAO

The course included three days of classroom instruction and eleven days of hands-on training to include weapons qualification events for the M-16A2 service rifle, the M240B ma-chinegun and the M249 Squad Auto-matic Weapon.

Completing the Master Gunners Course qualifies the ANA soldiers as subject matter experts on the three weapon systems, and certifies them to return to their units and train other Sol-

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diers on how to properly handle and operate them.

The Master Gunners’ newly gained knowledge will increase the proficien-cy of their units and the Af-ghan Military. “It was out-standing training; this will improve relationships and fighting capabilities be-tween Afghanistan Nation-al Army and the Coalition Forces,” said MAJ Robert McDougal of the Regional Division Advisory Com-mand (RDAC).

Six Soldiers who quali-fied at the Expert level on the M-16A2 service rifle and displayed excellent

A 201st Corps Afghan National Army Soldier proudly displays his well-earned diploma from the Master Gun-ners Course, after completing the intensive 14-day training curriculum on various military weapons.

leadership qualities graduated with honors. The extra effort and enthusi-asm displayed by these Soldiers boost-ed morale and interest among the class, noted classmates.

On hand to congratulate the gradu-ates were COL Percy G. Hurtado, com-mander of the Afghanistan Regional Security Integration Command Kabul (ARSIC-K) and COL Louis J. Landreth the Regional Division Advisory Com-mand (RDAC).

This occasion marked the first time ARSIC-K and the 201st Corps had teamed up, with ARSIC-K providing the trainers and 201st Corps, Kabul, providing the marksmanship ranges. There are three Master Gunner classes scheduled to begin after the upcoming elections in Kabul are complete.

MARIETTA, Aug. 17, 2009 – SGT James Bowles, the Lawrenceville Sol-dier who returned from Afghanistan during the last week of July to compete for the Army National Guard’s Best Warrior title, just missed earning the crown in the three-day competition held July 31 to Aug. 14 at Fort Benning’s Warrior Training Center in Columbus. The honor went to SPC Guy Mellor of the Utah Army National Guard.

Regardless, Bowles is still a win-ner. In fact, said CSM Mike Hurndon, command sergeant major for Macon’s 48th Infantry Brigade, in an email from Afghanistan, he’s considered quite the hero by his fellow Soldiers.

According to Hurndon, “Bowles has been an inspiration to the entire 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) through his amazingly tireless efforts and commitment to exceeding all the standards set before him.” Bowles leads a fire team for Lawrenceville’s

Bowles: didn’t win, but still a winnerStory by SFC Roy HenryPhoto by SPC Mike PerryGeorgia National Guard Public Affairs Office

Company A, 1st Battalion, 121st Infan-try.

“This young man has impressed the brigade’s sergeant major corps as much now, as he did when selected Soldier of the Year at the unit level on up through the regional competition in Kentucky,” Hurndon wrote. “SGT Bowles is the truest of role models for his subordi-nates, his peers, and his leaders. We’re fortunate – as an organization – to have such a great warrior in our ranks.”

In a telephone interview from his Lawrenceville home, Bowles said that from the day he became the brigade Soldier-of-the-Year, he dedicated him-self to doing everything necessary to take Georgia all the way in the compe-tition.

Hurndon confirmed that even though Bowles is serving in a hostile environ-ment, he has given of his own time to focus on and to prepare for – as best he could – competitng against others who also wanted the Best Warrior title.

The competition, admitted Bowles - and those he competed against - was grueling.

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“As much as I wanted to repre-sent Georgia, my unit and my fellow Guardsmen at All-Army, the Sol-dier who won deservers to be there,” Bowles said in a telephone interview from his home. “I believe we all do, but he’ll be the one up against the best the active Army and Army Reserve have, and I hope he wins.”

In the end, he added, those who put themselves through what he and fellow competitors did deserve to win.

Take for example, Bowles ex-plained, the Combat Water Survival Event. Each Soldier hits the Warrior Training Center pool in full battle gear – including an M-4 rifle. It’s a timed event in which competi-tors must strip their equipment, excluding their rifle; swim 15 meters to the 3 meter end of the pool. There, a senior sergeant waits to shove them back in, patrol cap back-ward and pulled down over their eyes, and they must find their gear, put it back on and get out where they started.

“A lot of people lost their weapon on that one,” he recalled.

Other events included a 12 mile road march, followed by several other timed events and no sleep until early the next morning. Then it was up at 3 a.m. and into land navigation, and later a room clearing exercise and a grenade throw-ing event.

“I did pretty well on all of them,

but I’m telling you I got a run for my money from the others,” Bowles said. “We were all good. Yeah, some did bet-ter than others on certain events, but in the end we were all winners in our own right.”

With the competition over, and time growing near for him to return to Af-ghanistan and his unit, Bowles said he’s concentrating now on spending as much time with his wife and family as he can before going back.

He’ll appreciate that time, he said,

and when it’s time to say goodbye, he’ll wish he could stay a little longer, and had come away with the title of Best Warrior to his credit.

“But I know that I gave it my best and that the best Soldier won,” Bowles said. “So, I’m not too disappointed.

“Besides,” he added, “As much as I’ve missed my wife, and enjoyed be-ing home, I miss my guys. In a crazy sort of way [to some], it’ll be good to be back with them.”

SGT Jame Bowles goes over the score sheet for the rifle range during the Georgia Na-tional Guard Solider of the Year competition.

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Communication, learning from others center of annual conference

ATLANTA – Hundreds of volun-teers and their spouses from across the state converged on the Renaissance Hotel Aug. 14-16, 2009, for the annual Family Readiness Conference to dis-cuss how they can better serve the fam-ilies of Georgia’s National Guardsmen.

“It’s great to know that in these hard times there is one thing that is good, [and] that is you, the volunteers,” said Letha Nesbitt, wife of MG Terry Nes-bitt, Georgia’s Adjutant General. “Vol-unteers bring things to the personal level. You need to listen to each other, and learn from each other. When you do this you find out things you’d have never thought about.”

Guest speaker at Saturday morn-ing’s opening session, Steve McCurley, author and trainer in the field of vol-unteerism, discussed the importance of conversation. “You made your first

Story and photos by Amanda KennyFor more photos click below: mistake by sitting next to someone you know,” said McCurley. “The point of these conferences is to ‘loot’ someone else’s brain.”

He told the volunteers and Guards-men to find someone in the room that they might not know and have a con-versation with them about what “works and doesn’t work” in their family readi-ness groups and attempt to glean some new ideas.

MG Scott Hammond, Air Guard commander, provided the group with an update on Georgia’s Air Guard, and also added a few words of wisdom.

“If we can get so stressed out about such a little thing as a little bit of traf-fic on I-75, you can only imagine the

stress our Soldiers and Airmen are in over in theater if they’re a couple minutes late for time over target and lives are in the balance.

“The problem is they’re enduring those kinds of stresses and they don’t have the decompression opportunity. This is where the things you do for us are so absolutely critical,” Hammond added.

He said communication is vital and while the Army and Air Force don’t do much of it, there’s a lot of it be-tween the pilots and mechanics. “If mechanics and pilots have a hard time communicating with each other,” said Hammond, “then we need to under-stand that, in the dynamic in which we live, that with all the communica-tion venues we have there’s the po-tential for a lot of miscommunication. That’s another thing that you all do in helping us with our communication.”

The three-day conference was filled with classes and instruction ranging from how to deal with finances to how to keep relationships strong.

“Our family readiness groups

On the left MG Terry Nesbitt, Georgia’s Adjutant General (back), along with Col. Dan Zach-man, Col. Jay Peno, Letha Nesbitt, MAJ Blair Davis and several volunteers discuss what they can do to further the support they give to Soldiers and Airmen as part of a morning session at the annual Family Readiness Conference Aug. 15, 2009, in Atlanta.

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(FRGs) are not just for deployments,” said Darrell Partee, head of Georgia’s Family Readiness Program. “We also have annual training and natural disas-ters.” The FRGs are still needed be-cause these activities take Guardsmen away from their families, he said.

Saturday evening’s awards banquet provided Guard leaders the opportunity to recognize and thank volunteers for their time and effort in working with Guard families.

“We recruit Soldiers and Airmen, but we keep the families,” said BG Maria Britt, Georgia Army Guard com-mander, during the dinner. Britt said she knows first hand what many of these spouses endure when a loved one is deployed. Her husband, COL Tim Britt recently returned from deploy-ment. “I want to thank each of you who are part of that support.”

Named as this year’s Volunteer of the Year was Elaine Harvey, wife of TSgt George Harvey. She was selected for her work with Macon’s 202nd In-stallation Engineering Squadron (see related story).

The 12th Airborne Command and Control Squadron Key Spouse Group was awarded the Air Guard Unit of the Year, the 4th Civil Support Team –Weapons of Mass Destruction FRG was awarded the Army Guard Unit of the Year and the Youth Volunteer of the year is Catherine Eaton.

Catherine Eaton, the Youth Volunteer of the Year, receives her award from MG Terry Nesbitt, Georgia’s Adjutant General, Letha Nesbitt and Darrell Partee, head of Georgia’s Family Readiness Program. The award is presented annually at the Family readiness Conference.

Darrell Partee, head of the Georgia Family Readiness Pro-gram, presents guest speaker Steve McCurley with a ‘glass brick’ to thank him for his participation in the Family Readi-ness Conference.

Additional awardees include:Angie Fountain

Michelle WelliverJo Lane WeeksTraci WatsonLisa Lewis

Sheryl MurphyRuth Lee

Amanda CashCourtney Richards

Freda SinkfieldMary Long

Loretta RayburnEddie Bryant

Catherine ThomassonTracy Emery

Kimberly JohnsonTiffany Connolly

Susan MorganRobert Stokely

Kate WalkerNaomi EberhartJulie Simpson

Derrick JohnsonCity of Harlem

Aurie McMullenDebra Barnard

Iris WolffChristina Tremblay

Mistee LambertSarah Buwa

Marilyn HillmanTina Brents

Denise Ratliff

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Volunteer of the Year: A great womanUnselfish and patriotic service to

families of National Guardsmen has earned Elaine Harvey, the 2009 Fam-ily Readiness Volunteer of the Year award. Harvey was presented with the award by MG Terry Nesbitt, Georgia’s Adjutant General during the Readiness Group’s annual awards banquet Aug. 15, in downtown Atlanta.

The wife of TSgt George Harvey of Macon’s 202nd Engineer Installation Squadron, Elaine was chosen for her exceptional service to the unit mem-bers and their families. Harvey’s nomi-nation emphasized that she devotes a portion of her Saturdays to attend FRG

meetings at the unit. As importantly, Harvey readily took on the duties of treasurer of the FRG ensuring accuracy and accountability of the FRG funds as well as timely payment of all obliga-tions.

The award also cited Harvey for her “outstanding support for the change of command ceremonies and receptions by providing help and directions to the FRG volunteers for set up, decoration, serving, cleaning up.”

The Family Readiness Program se-lects the Volunteer of the Year based on nominations sent in by the Army and Air Guard units. Unit members nomi-nate the person whom they believe have made a significant and outstand-ing contribution to the unit’s welfare. Other criterion includes improvement in the quality of life and a demonstra-tion of exceptional support to family

readiness in the unit or community.

O t h e r service for which Har-vey was cited include cons is ten t -ly serving as liaison for family m e m b e r s , p r o v i d i n g advice and “ c o n c e r n -ing support to families of deployed m e m b e r s , ” and show-ing effective

communication between family mem-bers, unit personnel; and, assisting spouses with any needs that they may require while their family members are deployed.

Volunteer of the Year Elaine Harvey (third from the left) receives the Volunteer of the Year award from MG Terry Nesbitt, Letha Nesbitt and Darrell Partee. The award is given out every year at the annual Family Readiness Conference.

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1900 – MAJ J. Van Holt Nash, Jr. commanded Atlanta’s 5th Regiment of Infantry at their encampment on Cumberland Island, Georgia in July. The regimental commander, COL Park Woodward, who was unable to attend, and Nash both sent written after-action reports to the Adjutant General, BG Phil Byrd. One suggestion by Wood-ward was to lengthen the encampment to two weeks, realizing that more train-ing objectives could be achieved. He also thought that it should be under di-rect authority of the State government so that “much better discipline could be forced than when commands pay their own expenses”.

In reading recommendations by oth-er regimental commanders in the 1900 AG Report, remarks often addressed officers and men paying expenses for target practice as well as encampment costs. COL W. E. Wooten of the Fourth Regiment wrote, “The expenses of the encampment, even to the freightage on the tentage supplied by the State, were paid by the officers and men of the reg-iment.”

In his report, MAJ Nash found the camp site to be poor because it was low and close to a salt marsh thus infested with mosquitoes and gnats. He also noted that most of the officers ignored orders concerning sanitary methods while allowing for the fact that there were just a few “utensils” for digging “sinks”. Nash faulted officers as well for letting their men wear bathing suits or few clothes and go barefoot in the heat of the day causing cases of severe sunburn.

Because there was only one hospital tent and one litter for the sick, sugges-tions by both Woodward and Nash mir-rored the need for field hospital tents, cots, sheets and other items at encamp-ments.

The regiment did suffer the loss of

August Guard Historyone of its captains at Locust Grove, Ga. when he fell from a train the eve-ning they left Atlanta. CPT George S. Brown suffered brain in-juries and subsequently died at Henry Grady Hos-pital after being returned to Atlanta via train. Nash in the detailed paragraph on this accident wrote, “This I understand is the first death which has oc-curred in the history of en-campments in this State”.

Nash overall felt the camp’s training was suc-cessful and that he pointed out areas where improve-ments could occur for future encamp-ments, in particular a fully equipped medical department and the practice of sanitary conditions.

1917 – The Georgia National Guard was authorized a company of engi-neers by the War Department in April 1917. In correspondence to Georgia’s Adjutant General, BG Joseph Van Holt Nash, Jr., the Chief of the Militia Bu-reau, BG William A. Mann, requested that “the company be presented as a Pioneer Company of Engineers”. On May 12, Co. “A”, 1st Battalion Pioneer Engineers, Waycross, Ga., was formal-ly accepted into the Georgia National Guard.

Walter A. Gray, captain of the new unit, noted to BG Nash that the Way-cross City Council had provided an ar-mory in the newly constructed Munici-pal building and that it was fireproof. He also commented that the quarters would be free as well as water and lights and that the company would be given free use of the building’s swim-ming pool.

Two months after the U. S. entry into World War I, Company A was drafted into federal service on June 20th, re-

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National Guard embraces social media

porting to Camp Wheeler outside of Augusta, Ga. Here the 106th Engineer Regiment of the 31st Division was formed with Company A of the Geor-gia National Guard the nucleus. The Waycross unit gave the regiment it’s Regimental Staff and one Engineer Company. Six states eventually repre-sented the regiment’s war strength. The 106th Engineers were pioneer sappers and trained for that mission for more than a year.

In September 1918 they boarded the H.M.S. Balmoral Castle and joined a convoy consisting of transports, de-stroyers and battle cruisers, for Eng-land and then France.

Though the regiment was never sent to the front lines, they converted a sea of mud into Camp Pontanezen (where Napolean trained his armies), a large American camp that “entertains, feeds and houses one hundred thousand troops, a feat declared impossible by the French, who said that more than twenty-five thousand men could not be concentrated in one camp and taken

care of”. They constructed buildings to include barracks, kitchens and mess halls, floored and walled tents that were “perfectly floored, drained and wired”, water systems, a rail line, and roads. The command also constructed and op-erated saw mills, using the lumber for their construction projects as well as operated two quarries, the rock used on the roads in their area of operation.

“Camp Pontanezen is the portal thru which Americas Victorious Army is pouring, in a steady stream, on the last lap of the long, long, trail that leads to the new America made stronger and more glorious by their own sacrifices and achievements.”

In addition they constructed a hospi-tal complex in Kerhuon, warehouses at the Brest docks and a salvage plant at Lambezzelac.

*Accomplishments in France from, 106th Regt. Engrs. Of Dixie Division, Builders of Camp Pontanezen, pub-lished in France by the enlisted men of the regiment, circa 1919. This small book is in the history office archives.

ARLINGTON, Va. – Even in the 140-character brevity demanded of a tweet, the enthusiasm was evident:

“Just shot my first rounds from a M1A1 Main Battle Tank. Killed 3 of 4 targets. Best Tank on the planet!”

Among Twitter’s millions of us-ers (the company is private; the exact number of users is disputed but gener-ally agreed to be in the millions) this one is rare: He wears four stars and is responsible for policies, programs and plans affecting more than 450,000 Na-tional Guard members.

Gen. Craig McKinley may be a Twit-ter rarity (follow him @ChiefNGB) – but it’s not unique to find a leader of his stature at the cyberspace water cooler.

Even as debate over social media

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim GreenhillNational Guard Bureau

policy swirled in the Department of Defense this summer, someone tapped out this tweet:

“Obviously we need to find right balance between security and transpar-ency. We are working on that. But am I still going to tweet? You bet.”

The author?Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of

the Joint Chiefs of Staff (follow him @thejointstaff).

There is healthy debate about the balance between the need for opera-tional, information and network secu-rity and transparency, but the National Guard embraced social media in No-vember.

“The old way of communicating – internal communications or command information, external communications or media relations and community rela-

Releatd Story:The ‘happy’ medium between OPSEC and social networking: Can it be achieved?

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tions – [is] a 20th century model,” said Jack Harrison, the National Guard Bu-reau’s director of public affairs and stra-tegic communication. “Gen. McKinley is a believer in communication … col-laborate, coordinate, communicate – and he is very much embracing social media.

“Our position on social media is that we ought to carefully learn these differ-ent methods of communicating, keep-ing in mind our objective when we’re communicating, who our audience is,

who we’re trying to talk to [and] follow [Defense Department] policy, which … is still being developed.”

“I’ve seen people interact with the National Guard and the National Guard leadership … in a way that they’ve never been able to interact with the or-ganization before,” said Rick Breiten-feldt, chief of the social media branch in the National Guard Bureau’s public affairs office. “If we’re not one of the voices out there, somebody’s going to be there for us telling our story in a way that is inaccurate or that is maybe not the whole story. The conversation is going to be held, and if we’re not in-volved in the conversation, we’re miss-ing the point of social media: We have to be there, where the people are.”

In the months since the National Guard Bureau started embracing so-cial media, results have been immedi-ate and measurable. First-time visits to www.ng.mil, the National Guard’s premier public Website, have doubled. Public affairs officers believe much of the increase is being driven by the Guard’s social media presence.

“That’s a huge increase … in a six-

month period,” Harrison said. “That’s a quantifiable benefit. … We have a re-sponsibility to the American people to communicate with them, and the more people who are coming to our public Website, [the better.] … More people are more aware of the significant in-crease in the operationalization of the National Guard.”

One of the significant costs of shar-ing the Guard story with Guardmem-bers has been reduced while the num-ber of Guardmembers reached has

increased and the frequency of con-tact between Guard leaders and mem-bers has improved, Harrison said.

This was accom-plished by retiring the $550,000 per year, 60,000-copy

print edition of the monthly “The On Guard,” the official newspaper of the National Guard, and replacing it with a significantly less expensive e-mail subscription service that pushes out weekly updates and a quarterly e-mag-azine to 347,000 Citizen-Soldiers and Airmen.

The jury is still out on Department of Defense social media policy.

“The debate is about operational security and balancing the vulnerabili-ties of an entire network for the largest government department in the United States versus being open and transpar-ent and inclusive,” Breitenfeldt said. “It’s about risk.”

The Marine Corps banned social media use on official computers for a year. The Army, Navy and Air Force al-low it – for now.

“I don’t think [the Defense Depart-ment] really knows yet where it’s going to fall with respect to social media,” Harrison said. The public is invited to contribute to the policy discussion at web20guidanceforum.dodlive.mil.

Harrison said the Guard’s guidance on personal involvement in social me-

Name the social media site and the National Guard is there.

• Facebook: The National Guard page that started in Jan-uary had 3,000 fans through Tuesday. Users who sign up get updates on their Facebook Home page. • Twitter: @TheNatlGuard had gathered 1,489 followers through Friday since it started tweeting this spring. Follow-ers had received 407 official tweets from the National Guard Bureau, most containing links to Guard news. • Flickr: The 2,216 photos posted on The National Guard page had been viewed 114,144 times through Friday. • YouTube: The Nation-alGuard channel had been viewed more than 2,000 times through Friday. Subscribers see National Guard videos.

The Georgia National Guard is there too.

• Facebook: The Georgia Guardsman page that started in June had 134 fans through Thursday. • Twitter: @GAGuards-man had gathered 102 follow-ers through Thursday since it started tweeting this summer. Followers had received 63 of-ficial tweets from the Georgia National Guard, most contain-ing links to Guard news. • Flickr: The 51 photos posted on The Georgia Guard page had been viewed 78 times through Friday.

Noticed yesterday another great benefit our M-Day soldiers take back to their civilian employers: Safety training conducted at drill.

Tweet from @124mpad

Georgia Guardsman : 16 : No. 8

dia is clear: “It’s the same as our guid-ance would be for any sort of media activity that our Guardsmen involve themselves in. We’re American citi-zens. We all have the right to speak and speak honestly. … As military mem-bers, we have a responsibility to be

professional.”Some wonder about a knowledge

gap between people who have access to the Internet and those who don’t. A December 2008 Gallup poll found that almost half of Americans are frequent Internet users.

All things aside, the end of the print edition of “The On Guard” was marked by deafening silence.

“Many people said when we made this change, ‘Wow, there’s going to be a lot of people who are angry or upset that they don’t have a piece of paper to look at every month’,” Harrison said. “I’ve not received one phone call, one e-mail, one letter. Nothing.”

When necessary, GovDelivery helps the Guard contact its membership al-most instantly, as happened after an Army National Guard laptop was sto-len and 131,000 people’s personal data potentially compromised late last

month.“The speed at which we can com-

municate with Guardmembers is light-years ahead of where it was a year ago,” Harrison said.

But social media and electronic delivery are about more than reduced

costs and increased contacts. The very nature of the interaction has changed. The defining characteristic of Web 2.0 is that it’s interactive.

“Web 2.0 is choosing the informa-tion that you want, when you want it, how you want to see it,” Breiten-feldt said. “We’re trying to be part of that environment. I don’t see us go-ing back. The public is going to de-mand this type of transparency and this type of interactiveness. … Gone are the days where the public isn’t involved in the conversation.”

The Internet in general and social media in particular has removed a filter from between the public and public servants such as National Guard members.

Twenty years ago, an institution such as the Guard had to make a compelling case to get its story out

to a limited range of traditional media operating within a much slower news cycle. The Guard had little or no con-trol over the form a story took.

Today, the Guard and every other social institution in every sector can speak directly to the public – and the public can answer directly back.

“It used to be one-way,” Breitenfeldt said. “We would push out press releas-es. We would push out talking points. We would push out information. Now we are asking for input. It’s a two-way street [now].”

Twenty years ago, the traditional media told the public what news was. Now, the public decides what it consid-ers news by interest measured in clicks, tweets, re-tweets, social bookmarks and the like.

“It’s a revolution and an evolution in communication – social media is just part of it,” Harrison said. “I don’t think

Among Twitter’s millions of users is Gen. Craig McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bu-reau. (U.S. Army photo illustration)

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Braves take flight

it’s just a news revolution. … It’s just another step in the evolutionary pro-cess of communicating.

“We have a responsibility to the American people – to the taxpayer who provides the funding for us to be the National Guard -- … to let them know what we’re doing with their money. These tools … are helping us do ex-actly that.”

Some National Guard Bureau offi-cials believe social media’s true worth will shine during the next major natural or manmade disaster.

“Social media has an immediate im-pact,” Breitenfeldt said. “North Dakota used Facebook and Twitter during the floods this spring, and they were put-ting out real-time, accurate, lifesaving

information that was being picked up by not only the citizens … but also by media outlets.”

Twitter was heavily used in 2008 during events such as August’s Hurri-cane Gustav, October’s earthquake in Pakistan and November’s terrorist at-tacks in Mumbai, India, according to mashable.com, the social media guide.

“I really see the value in these sites for our first hurricane of the season, or for the first time the Guard gets called out [domestically] in a large number,” Breitenfeldt said. “People are going to be looking to … social media sites for immediate, accurate and reliable infor-mation. We’re in a position now where we can do that.”

MARIETTA — Twelve Atlanta Braves baseball players and staff met with a team of “Braves” of the Geor-gia Army Guard’s 832nd Air Ambulance Medical Company Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009, at Turner Field where the group boarded a UH-60 Blackhawk heli-copter and toured the At-lanta skyline.

The 832nd is part of 78th Aviation Troop Com-mand stationed at Army Flight Facility No. 2 on Dobbins Air Reserve Base.

The players and staff included pitcher Peter Moylan (Inset), Brandon Bissell, executive vice president, sales and mar-keting (left); and enter-tainment manager Scott Cunningham (right). Also on the flight were vice president and general man-ager Frank Wren; batting coach Terry Pendleton; director of game entertain-ment Derek Schiller; field director Ed

Mangan; director of team travel and equipment manager, Bill Acree; pro-duction manager Matt Montemayor;

editor Jonathan Hillyard; and produc-tion trainee Stephen Ludlam.

The 832nd will soon include on its flight suits a new patch incorporating the ball club’s official insignia.

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Brunswick exercise tests Georgia response to terrorist threatATLANTA, GA – The scenario had

the markings for a successful thriller. The obscure house on the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center property in Brunswick, revealed few signs of the well-organized and sophisticated bio-terrorist attack being devel-oped inside.

This realistic scenario was the catalyst for a state-wide emergency preparedness op-eration called “Operation Vigi-lant Sample II” which involved more than 150 participants from state, local and federal agencies. A similar two-day exercise organized in 2006 in Brunswick was the first “real time” operation to use state military assets in testing Geor-gia’s response capability for a biological terrorist attack.

This activity utilized re-sources from many partners including Georgia Department of Human Resources’ Divi-sion of Public Health, Georgia State Patrol, Georgia Emer-gency Management Agency (GEMA), Georgia Army Na-tional Guard, Georgia Public Health Laboratories, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Coastal Health District, Southeast Georgia Health System, and Glynn County Fire Department.

The Georgia Division of Public Health and the Georgia National Guard organized the comprehensive emer-gency exercise to evaluate the state’s response capability to a biological ter-rorist threat. The drill tested all areas of emergency response to a biological attack including on-scene assessment, specimen collection, transport, analysis and medical treatment.

The exercise began early Monday

morning with a report to Glynn County police of a mobile biological production facility and the discovery of a suspi-cious white-powder. Utilizing existing emergency response and notification protocols and procedures, local EMAs

responded and established an incident control headquarters. State assistance was called in along with the activation of the National Guard 4th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team. The National Guard also mobilized air and ground resources to respond to the emergency.

The exercise’s focus was on the col-lection and analysis of the suspected agent performed by the Guard’s 4th CST. Guardsmen donned protective

An active biological agent is carefully collected by a member of the 4th CST before being flown to public health laboratories in Atlanta for positive identification. Operation Vigilant Sample focused upon the collection and analysis of substances found in connection with a suspected bioterrorist attack.

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Army Guard graduates 28 new lieutenants

Guardsman make a tactical entry into a house suspected of being the location of a biological terrorist operation during Operations Vigilant Sample. More than 150 local, state and federal agencies participated in the test of the state’s response to a bio-terrorist incident.

suits to enter the target area, collect samples and provide a preliminary assessment. Once collected, the suspected mate-rial was transported by Georgia State Patrol helicopters to the public health Laboratory Re-sponse Network (LRN) labs in Waycross and Decatur for bio-terrorist agent confirmation.

“This exercise gave us bet-ter knowledge of the time–line from detection of a possible biological threat to a confirmed laboratory result and can isolate specific challenges to allow for continue improvement in our response and evaluation plans,” said Dr. Deborah Loveys, the Emergency Response Coordi-nator for the public health labo-ratory.

CPT Byron Marsh of the Georgia National Guard’s 4th CST who coordi-nated much of the interagency activi-ties for the exercise said, “the level of cooperation between all participants in

this exercise was unprecedented,” The information we gained from this exer-cise will go to evaluate the effective-ness of our existing procedures during real emergencies.”

MARIETTA, Aug. 15, 2009 – More than 200 friends, families and fellow Soldiers watched and applauded as 28 new Georgia Army Guard second lieutenants graduated officer candidate training in a ceremony here.

Class 48’s graduation doesn’t just open a new chapter in the lives of the Soldiers joining the Army Guard’s Of-ficer Corps. It also marks the first class Georgia’s 122nd Regional Training In-stitute (RTI) has trained and graduated since its move from Macon to Naval Air Station Atlanta, new home to the RTI and the Georgia National Guard.

The property on which the event was held - the Hilton Atlanta-Marietta Hotel and Conference Center -- was

Story and photos by SFC Roy HenryGeorgia National Guard Public Affairs Office

once home to the Georgia Military In-stitute (GMI), RTI’s predecessor. The institute, its staff and cadets left this

Newly promoted 2LT John W. Riddle salutes his cousin, COL Ken Riddle, garrison commander at Fort Drum, N.Y. and an-other family member after the younger Riddle is pinned with his new rank.

Georgia Guardsman : 20 : No. 8

northern metro city in 1864 to assist the Confederate Army in the defense of Atlanta during the Civil War. Decades later GMI was resurrected, first in For-syth, then Milledgeville, at what is now Georgia Military College, and finally Macon where it eventually was re-named the Regional Training Institute.

“What better way to embrace our new status as officers than to take our oaths here on these hallowed grounds,” said 2LT John W. Riddle of Kennesaw. Riddle, formerly an enlisted Soldier with Augusta’s 878th Engineer Battal-ion, who will become a military intel-ligence officer and move to Company C, 221st Military Intelligence Battalion at Fort Gillem in Ellenwood.

As is the tradition, each graduating officer had his, or her, officer candidate rank removed by a family member or friend, and replaced with the gold bar of a second lieutenant for which they’d worked long and hard to earn. Each

stood tall and reaffirmed the oath as of-ficers and their obligation to “uphold and defend” the constitutions of the United States and the state of Georgia.

“I charge you to take seriously your oath and your duties as officers,” said

MAJ William E. Bailey, Officer Can-didate School Company Commander. “Listen to the words of your oath and internalize them.

“Ours is a sacred duty and a noble one,” Bailey said. “You are the guard-ians of the constitutions of your coun-try and of your state. God speed to you as you continue on your path as Sol-diers, as leaders in the Georgia Army National Guard.”

MG Terry Nesbitt, Georgia’s Ad-jutant General took a moment to look over the new lieutenants and those who had come to witness their transforma-tion from officer candidate to “officer.”

In welcoming them to the Guard Of-ficer Corps, Nesbitt congratulated them for making it through the difficult and demanding process that embodies the Officer Candidate Course. He also con-gratulated their families for their sac-rifices.

“Whether your Soldier came up through the traditional yearlong course or the accelerated training, they’re hard work and endless effort paid off, not just because of what they did, but be-cause of your support and your com-mitment to them reaching their goal,” he said. “You have all earned the praise of those with whom you serve.”

Following the ceremony second lieutenants Soo J. Kim and Kevin D. Dieterich of Atlanta discussed their reasons for becoming officers. (Kim asked that her city of residence not be used for this story.)

Kim, a former sergeant and human resources specialist for Joint Forces Headquarters (JFHQ) Medical Com-mand in Ellenwood, now becomes a quartermaster with Company E, 171st Aviation, Dobbins Air Reserve Base.

Having been around what she con-sidered some “great leaders” while de-ployed to Iraq in 2005 with the New Jersey Army National Guard, “going after the gold,” became a personal choice.

“Those [officers] I worked with, and for, inspired me to set a higher standard

LT Eboni N. Sherrer dons her beret bearing her new rank after family members switch out Sherrer’s former Officer Candidate rank for her new gold bar.

The Georgia Army Guard’s New-est Second Lieutenants

* Matthew Alexander * Tandrea S.Beasley * Tiffany L. Bellinger * Christopher J. Cooper * Kevin D. Dieterich * Michael Frank * Jason Felker * Christopher Guyton * Paul G. Hillier * Terrell L. Hood * Marcus E. Huggins * Soo J. Kim * Jeffrey L. Lance * Marcus T. McMullen * Erin E. Merrion * Kenneth R. Peebles * Tia N. Peters * Darren L. Rager * John W. Riddle * Rebecca E. Royalty * Murray K. Schesser * Eboni N. Sherrer

Georgia Guardsman : 21 : No. 8

for myself,” she explained. “I wanted to be that kind of leader, better than I am, and always striving toward an even higher ideal.”

Deterich, who held the rank of spe-cialist, was a military policeman with Kennesaw’s 190th Military Police Company. He remains in that job, but moves on to platoon leader with Deca-tur’s 170th Military Police Battalion. On the full-time side, he’s a DEERS

technician at JFHQ Personnel.“For me, I didn’t want to ‘just’ be

a follower, though I did need to learn to follow in order to become a leader,” he said. “If you want to affect change,” he said, “if you want people to follow you, you need to step up and step out. Whether you become an officer or re-main enlisted and become a senior sergeant, lead from the front, not from behind.”

The Georgia Department of Defense Public Affairs Office took a major leap in its ability to send and receive broadcast media by adding a Norsat Newslink system to GaDOD headquar-ters in Marietta this month. The Nor-sat Newslink system isn’t new to the Army. In fact, if you’ve ever sent or received a holiday greeting while de-ployed or participated in a “town hall meeting” in Iraq or Afghanistan, chances are it was courtesy of the Norsat. The only catch is you prob-ably heard it called by a dif-ferent name…DVIDS.

DVIDS, or Digital Video Imagery Distribution Sys-tem, has since 2004 been in-strumental in providing the military with real time broad-cast capabilities. Through a network of portable Norsat Newslink satellite transmit-ters located in theater and the distribution hub in Atlanta, DVIDS makes available real-time broadcast-quality video, photo and print products as well as immediate interview oppor-tunities with service members, com-manders and subject matter experts.

The system installed in “building 2” will enable the Public Affairs Of-fice to obtain audio and video prod-ucts directly from public affairs units deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq, like

DVIDS provides exciting new PA opportunityStory and photos by David Howell and SPC Mike Perry

the Combined Joint Task Force Phoe-nix Public Affairs Team. It will also provide remote interview capabilities for commanders to talk live with de-ployed units and send stories directly to Armed Forces Network facilities enter-taining and informing Georgia soldiers. Access to this system also allows the Guard to archive video, audio and print products at the DVIDS repository. Ac-cess to the repository is easy; just go

to the DVIDS webpage at http://www.dvidsnub.net and sign up.

Units providing media products can also create their own DVIDS webpage, highlighting their downloaded articles, photo and video. The Georgia Depart-ment of Defense Public Affairs Office, 124th Mobile Public Affairs Detach-ment and 48th IBCT Public Affairs Of-fice in Afghanistan have DVIDS web pages.

DVIDS antenna in place on top of Building 2.

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JSTARS Aircraft availability improved

Combatant commanders (COCOMs) require real-time information to gain battlefield superiority. To deliver this service to the COCOMs, JSTARS uti-lizes a variety of command and control (C2) and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data and voice systems which allow them to effective-ly integrate air, ground and space sys-tems with their system services. Conse-quently, various Air Force, Army, and

Marine forces are more precise in delivering missions such as close air support, suppression of enemy defenses, and combat search and rescue.

Meeting the mark on aircraft availability is of primary con-cern to the 116th Air Control Wing and consequently to the 116th Maintenance Group. For fiscal year ‘09, Air Staff estab-lished an aircraft availability goal for the E8-C at 64.2 per-

cent, however, it is estimated that by as early as 2010, E-8C aircraft availabil-ity will diminish by one aircraft. There-fore, in 2008, the 116th Maintenance Squadron took a look at what they re-fer to as “long poles in the tent;” major processes that take the greatest amount of time. They discovered room for im-provement in areas to include isochro-nal (ISO) inspections, engine changes, and back shop maintenance processes.

Isochronal inspections are per-formed at home station and are due ev-ery nine months. The goal for the AFSO 21 event was to reduce the amount of time an aircraft stayed in ISO. Twenty-seven maintenance experts from vari-ous areas including maintenance, air-craft maintenance, logistics, and main-tenance operations were able to project a reduction of flow time from 24 to 14 days. Flow time is defined as total time of the process.

Story by Lt Pamela Stauffer116th Public Affairs Office

“Previously we used calendar days as a basis for flow time, we now use fly-to-fly as a basis for flow time,” MSgt Chris Carbajal, 116th MXS, pro-pulsion work lead, said.

Since the event, two aircraft have been inspected and met the flow time goal of 14 days.

During the Engine Change AFSO 21 event, the goal was to reduce the amount of time for an engine change by standardizing processes such as strut and nose cowling inspections. Improvement suggestions from the team include having a dedicated engine change crew, standardizing thrust re-verser rigging, mobilizing the automat-ed maintenance systems, and pre-po-sitioning engine tools and equipment. The projected flow time was reduced from 78 to 48 hours, increasing aircraft availability by greater than 12 percent.

“The Engine change event had de-pendency on other processes in the Engine Shop, which drove a Rapid Improvement Event, held in the back shop,” said SMSgt Anthony Tomczak, 116th MXS, chief inspector, Quality Assurance.

Reducing the amount of time it takes to fix an aircraft engine during sched-uled maintenance and unscheduled maintenance was the primary focus during the back shop event. When there is a need to replace an engine for un-scheduled maintenance, the engine ar-rives from the flight line and is induct-ed into the shop. It is then given a re-ceiving inspection and maintenance is performed to repair discrepancies. The engine is then taken to test cell for a systems functional check and returned to the shop where final quick engine change kit items are installed followed by a quality assurance inspection and returned to the serviceable spare line.

The Rapid Improvement Event cen-tered around implementing the ‘point of use’ concept. Originated from Hen-

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ry Ford in the 1950s and 1960s, im-proved by Peter Drucker, and adopted by Toyota, point of use practices place frequently used items in close proxim-ity so that it maximizes efficiency and minimizes cost. Ten team members proposed standardizing work bays so that tools are placed at the point of use. As a result, parts and consumables re-quired to convert an engine received from Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., into a spare ready JSTARS TF-33 engine, are shadowed out for close retrieval. This helped to significantly reduce flow time by 59 hours.

“Through innovative planning, thinking and solutions the men and

women of the 116th Propulsion Flight provide second to none quality aircraft engines for the E-8 aircraft regardless of its location be it deployed, in ISO on the flight-line or in our back-shop,” said SMSgt James Swartz, 116th MXS, Propulsion Flight chief.

The 116th MXS has a vital role in assisting combatant commanders to gain the information they need to ob-tain battlefield superiority and assists various services attain success in their individual missions. By continuing to focus on improving aircraft availabil-ity, the wing will continue to meet the war fighting demands of the 21st cen-tury.

WASHINGTON - Minor changes are scheduled to take place within the Defense Department’s travel reserva-tion system later this summer to sup-port the Transportation Security Ad-ministration’s new pre-flight screening program, a Defense Department offi-cial said recently.

Under the current format, when travelers arrange flight, hotel and rental car reservations online at the Defense Travel System Web site, the only per-sonal information the site processes through to the vendors is the traveler’s first name, last name and middle initial. But after the system and Web site mod-ifications take effect, the traveler’s date of birth and gender will be included to comply with the TSA’s Secure Flight Program, said Pam Mitchell, director of the Defense Travel Management Of-fice.

“The TSA Secure Flight Program implementation for DTS is sched-uled to take place on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2009,” said 2LT Chad Tyson, ac-counting officer for the Georgia Guard. “After this date, all Georgia National Guard service members utilizing DTS for flight, hotel or rental car reserva-

Defense Travel System to modify reservation processStory by Army SFC Michael J. Carden American Forces Press Service

tions will be prompted by a pop-up screen from the DTS Web site to add their date of birth, gender and name as it appears on their CAC Card. This is a one-time prompt and once completed travel will be as normal. The change is seamless and will not affect any current travel reservation in DTS.”

Defense travelers will be prompted by a pop-up screen from the DTS Web site to add the information, as well as to enter their name as it appears on their government-issued identification card. The change will be minimally inconve-nient to the traveler, as the information will be entered only once then saved to their profile, Mitchell said.

The program is an outcome of the 9/11 Commission, and it basically streamlines the process of identify-ing potential passengers deemed a match on the FBI-generated watch list screened by the airlines, Paul Leyh, the program’s director, said.

Before the program officially began last month, the various airlines each had their own screening processes, which was inconsistent and inconve-nient for many travelers, Leyh said. It’s not uncommon for a passenger’s information to be identified as a match on one airline’s list but cleared through

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another’s, he added.“From carrier to carrier, because the

process is different, it’s inconsistent across all carriers,” he said. “Through-out the world there are hundreds of car-riers, and it could be kind of a crap shoot for people. But with Secure Flight, it’s going to be the same process for that person regardless of the carrier.”

With the Secure Flight Program, the TSA eventually will become the sole prescreening agency for all airline pas-

sengers. The program officially started in May with several domestic airlines, but within 18 months, every airline - international and domestic - that trav-els within, to, from and over the United States will be phased into the program,

he said.This will improve the safety of more

than 2.5 million people, Leyh added. Also, travelers who’ve been misiden-tified as a close-enough match on the watch list can apply for a redress num-ber through TSA to prevent future in-conveniences. If cleared, the redress number also will be added to their pro-file in DTS.

“With nearly every commercial air-line participating, watch list matching is going to be more effective, which is going to allow us to clear more people and focus on those potential travelers that are considered as a close enough match,” he said.

The program will virtually go unno-ticed by the passengers, officials said, as no changes to the airline check-in or security checkpoint procedures are involved. Once defense travelers make the initial modifications to their profile on the DTS Web site, officials added, the program’s changes will not affect them unless their information matches the watch list.

In today’s military, the combination of letters RHIP is used among members to express a specific order in which to follow. RHIP; what does it mean; well to many of us it means that Rank Has Its Privileges. That simply means that the person who has more rank than you deserves to be given the highest level of respect at all times.

Unfortunately, for some, RHIP seems to mean ‘Ripping Hearts Into Pieces’. Let’s not get it wrong. Just because you out rank someone does not give you the right to disrespect, con-trol, or degrade anyone at any time. All ranks should be treated with the upmost respect always. No one should take ad-vantage of the lower ranking person.

RHIP simply means to stay in your lane; watch what you say; watch how

RHIP...What does it mean?Story by Command Chief Betty Morgan you say it; watch to whom you say

it; learn to listen more, and talk less; phrase your words carefully; support your leading person; react to situations slowly and carefully; respond with positives first; share your thoughts, but prepare to stand alone; watch your body language for sometimes that tells your answer more than your verbal re-sponses; think before you speak; offer solutions to problems, etc.

RHIP means more to some than to others, regardless of what you think it means, one thing for sure, it does not mean Ripping Hearts Into Pieces. Re-member this when you are with some-one of higher or lower ranking than you. Above all, no matter what you think, feel, or do, someone is always watching you...Go Rule!!! But Rule with Respect...

Command Chief Betty L G Morgan